But all are welcome in the 34-table poker room, the largest in the Midwest, offering almost any popular style of the game at any limit. Horseshoe Casino Hammond Pros should watch for World Series of Poker–qualifying tourneys here (the last one, in October 2010, had buy-ins up to $10,000). A swank, private high-limit room is home to a solitary blackjack table, which we presume is reserved for James Bond. Rivers Casino A 44,000-square-foot gaming floor ups the ante with the highest table limits in Illinois, including a $100,000 maximum bet on mini baccarat. Or just flirt your way through the inevitable bachelor and bachelorette parties-you’ll probably have better odds. Grab a cocktail (they run as cheap as $4) at Push, the sleek bar in the center of the gaming floor, and flirt with the penny slots or $1–$2 no-limit Hold’Em. But on weekends, it draws a crowd of twentysomethings there for the scene as much as the slot machines, thanks to the proximity to downtown (a 17-mile shot over the Chicago Skyway) and free shuttles roaming Chicago.

Bally’s, they claim, doesn’t have experience building casinos from the ground up, since the company has only purchased its other establishments.Horseshoe Casino Hammond This casino’s not short on serious dice rollers. Two representatives whose districts include the proposed development fear that it will aggravate downtown traffic and have questioned whether the casino will really be able to deliver on its promised fiscal benefits, CBS News reported. The first phase of the project is seeking LEED Gold certification.Īccording to Bally’s, the development’s second phase aims to create a “spectacular regional destination” with almost 4,800 apartments, another hotel, and 125,000 square feet of retail spread out over 5.6 million square feet.Īlthough the casino plan cleared the City Council, it attracted its fair share of criticism in the process. Rendering of a linear park over the Union Pacific rail alignment at Halstead Street (SCB/Courtesy Chicago DPD) If the Illinois Gaming Board approves the project, Bally’s December 2022 presentation to the city noted that it will pay the city $40 million upfront, and make annual contributions of $2 million for community benefits and $2 million for the general fund, respectively.

The Chicago Sun-Times reported that Chicago officials are banking on fees and taxes from the project to finance police and fire pension funds, which are currently experiencing a shortfall.

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